Computing – Page 21

Telus bringing IPTV to Xbox 360 in Canada

May 3, 2010 Doug Groves extender, Microsoft, Telus, Telus TV, Uverse, Windows Media Center, WMC, Xbox 3601 Comment

If the source over at gamefocus.ca is right, it looks like Telus will be bringing an IPTV solution to Canadian Xbox 360 users, which is currently being tested and should hit the market in 2011. Other than finding out that it’s Telus, as opposed to Bell or Rogers, there’s not too much new to see. It doesn’t sound like the 360 would be used to do the recording. Instead, the Telus TV HD PVR would handle the recording, and the 360 would be used as an interface for one of…

Season Finale of FOX’s “House” Shot on Canon DSLR!

May 3, 2010May 3, 2010 kingpinlei 5d, Canon, DSLR, FOX, HD, House, Mark2, MarkII, Mk2, MkII, Philip Bloom, TV5 Comments

I found out about this via DP (Director of Photography) extraordinaire Philip Bloom’s website and it simply blew my mind. And it is big news for all you filmmaker-tech-heads out there! It appears the upcoming season finale of the FOX medical TV series “House” was shot entirely on the Canon 5D Mark2 DSLR.

Bumptop bought by Google

May 2, 2010 Doug Groves Android, bumptop, chrome os, google0 comment

Toronto based BumpTop, makers of the 3D desktop interface of the same name, has been acquired by Google. We’ve talked about Bumptop in the past, as it made for an interesting UI for touch screen computers. Earlier this year BumpTop appeared on HP’s tm2 convertible laptop, as well as releasing a verison for Mac OS X. The front page of BumpTop has a letter to it’s fans, and for the next few days the free versions for will be available for download. For paid users, there is an End of…

Freedom of the press, or license to steal?

April 30, 2010 Doug Groves Apple, editorial, EFF, Electronic Frontier Foundation, First Amendment, Gizmodo, REACT6 Comments

By now, everybody knows the Gizmodo – iPhone 4G fiasco inside and out. It’s broken beyond the tech world to the mainstream, from the New York Times coming out in favour of Gizmodo’s journalistic rights to Jon Stewart offering an amusing but watered down spanking to Apple for becoming the “1984” it once rallied against. Of course, I’d argue that Apple is more “Brave New World” than “1984”, but that’s another story… What’s got my editorial undies all bunched is how since Gizmodo invoked the journalistic shield law as a…

Windows Media Center in HDTVs, Xbox Live TV around the corner… dare I say “synergy”?

April 29, 2010April 30, 2010 Doug Groves Microsoft, Windows 7, Windows 7 Embedded, Windows Media Center, Xbox 360, Zune Marketplace, Zune Pass3 Comments

Microsoft has talked in the past of making the Xbox 360 an ‘all-in-one’ set top device, capable of providing DVR and TV capabilities, but little substance has come from it. Now, Game Focus is reporting that according to their own trusted source, that an Xbox live TV service will be coming to both the US and Canada by 2011, and that this would work in conjunction with a major telecommunications company, which narrows it down to basically Rogers or Bell. Users will have access to live TV feeds, recording capabilities…

Next is Now: Rogers branding video

April 29, 2010April 29, 2010 drsquid Android, brand, canada, Internet, iPad, Mobile, product, Rogers, smartphone, video6 Comments

Rogers held their annual shareholders meeting today, and like many of these types of meetings, there’s some slick, well-made corporate video to set the mood. I’ve been on the editing end of more than one of these, so I know how it works. The thing is, this one from Rogers, well, kind of works. Using stats projected in urban environments, it communicates the message that the future is here… or “Next is Now” if you will. Some of the stats are somewhat odd though. I did laugh a bit when…

HP buys Palm!

April 28, 2010 Doug Groves business, Hewlett Packard, HP, palm, Palm Pre, Pixi, sale, webOS0 comment

Just in, Hewlett Packard has purchased ailing smart phone maker Palm Inc. for about $1 billion in cash. Palm has been up for sale recently. In fanboy circles, yours truly included, the hope was that Taiwanese manufacturer HTC would buy Palm, and do something spectacular with Palm’s webOS. So much for that dream. HP was always considered a possible suitor for Palm. This could be a good move for the computer manufacturer, as Dell, their chief rival in the US has recently shown a strong line up of mobility hardware…

Microsoft releases Vail Server public preview

April 28, 2010April 28, 2010 Doug Groves Microsoft, public preview, Server 2008, Vail, WHS, Windows Home Server1 Comment

On Monday, Microsoft released the public preview of of the latest home server, codenamed Vail. Interestingly, they’ve dropped the word “Home” from the naming convention, which goes in line with the rumours that they may also be targeting this software for very small businesses as well. You can get yourself a copy to try out here. There’s a lot of new features in Vail. The two major changes are significant. On the surface, the UI has been given the Windows 7 treatment, and at the heart of it, Vail is…

The long and winding tale of a blogger, a lost prototype and the cops who came a-knocking

April 28, 2010July 30, 2014 Doug Groves Apple, California, cartoon, editorial, editorial comic, Gizmodo, iPhone 4G, Jason Chen, legal, REACT, rgbcomic3 Comments

Except for a brief roundtable discussion which we published last week, we largely steered clear of the whole Gizmodo iPhone 4G leak, but recent events make it interesting to look at in a different light. This past Friday night, California’s Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team (REACT) police, operating under a search warrant, busted down Gizmodo editor Jason Chen’s front door home while he was out, and confiscated all his computer equipment. To get you caught up on the story, here’s the Cliff Notes version of events leading up to it:

Wardriving the planet: Google Street View style

April 26, 2010 Doug Groves google, privacy, Street View, wardriving2 Comments

Most people love the Street View function in Google Maps, and rightly so. It’s a neat gimmick at the very least, and if you find yourself in an unknown area, it can actually be useful. It’s helped fight crime, by helping police rescue an allegedly kidnapped girl, but the Street View cars have been at the centre of controversy before, including snapping pics while driving along private roads, killing Bambi and more. This this now includes the Street View cars operating as the world’s largest fleet of wardriving vehicles. Wardriving…

Why Android Market Has No Games

April 26, 2010November 6, 2020 Jason 3D, Android, Cobworks, game development, Open GL, Open GL ES3 Comments

After a few days of Nexus One ownership I began looking for games, preparing to be hypnotized by games as amazing as the Nexus One itself. After my first search, the list of games I found was the following: Robo Defense Lite (an ok tower defense game), Labyrinth Lite, Poke A Mole, Pinball and BreakTheBlocks Lite. The list of games after the top five were similar and included many more brick breaker, whack-a-mole, snake and pong games. Underwhelmed hardly describes how I felt…

Does Francis hate Rochelle’s shirt? Left 4 Dead 2’s DLC ‘The Passing’ out now!

April 22, 2010April 22, 2010 drsquid DLC, Left 2 Dead 2, Left 4 Dead, Mutations, PC games, PC gaming, Valve, Xbox 360, Zombies2 Comments

The new chapter for Left 4 Dead 2, The Passing, is being released today on the 360 and PC. Finally the cast of Left 4 Dead 1 and 2 get to meet, and in the trailer above Francis and Rochelle get their hate on together. The chapter also introduces the weekly Mutations events, as detailed by Valve on their L4D blog: The Passing introduces a series of weekly game mode events dubbed “Mutations.” These are week-long runs of new gameplay modes that range from “Realism Versus” to “Chainsaw Massacre”. Each…